Event Nine.

[awashmods]

Thus, on Life’s gloomy sea, Heareth the marinere Voices sweet, from far and near, Ever singing in his ear, “Here is rest and peace for thee!”

t's a dark night, and the sounds of feet in the darkness are further dampened and hidden by even more magic, as they are lured away by the soft sounds of dreams that are too good to be true, leaving the Town much, much emptier than when it began. On one side, an island, and a ticking clock to a gruesome death. On the other, the slow realization that those bonds everyone has been forging might mean much, much more than they first thought. Welcome to Awash's ninth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. You are welcome to start your own posts or logs for this event as well. If there are any questions, please ask them here. Please be sure to very clearly mark where your characters are in your prompts, so people know which they can tag depending on which group they are in. Thank you!

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[passio]

[ it burns right through the siren, turning it to dust—maybe a consequence of it being a creature of water, and dextera’s power being something like a holy fire, the presence of god on the land. when even the ash of the siren is blown away by the wind, there stands dextera. ]

…

[ he stumbles. ]

[withwisdom]

[ the shock almost starts to fade, her heart pounding through her ears, and trying to get herself back in order. but then when the siren scatters into dust, and dextera is right behind, it comes back again.

yet it's his stumble that snaps her back into the moment, remembering where they are in the midst of panic. she takes a sharp breath and her right hand flies to clutch the flesh wound underneath her left shoulder, swallowing down the urge to cry out, the pain beginning to shoot through her. ]

Dextera - [ ah ] - gods, it bit me. Are you alright?

[ she doesn't know what she just saw, but it's the least of her worries in the moment. ]

[passio]

[ dextera is fine, just tired, and when zelda admits that it bit her after all, he winces in apology. ]

Fine. [ a quick sign, as he catches his breath. ] How bad?

[ he can’t heal, regardless of strength, which seems counterintuitive to the “purification” his powers go by—but he can at least stop it from getting infected. ]

[withwisdom]

I'm not sure...

[ she sucks in a breath and carefully lowers her hand from the wound to give it a look. the imprint of its teeth is visible, a chunk of skin bitten off. not too deep, but she can't see much from the angle of her head and moving the arm isn't advisable in her mind. ]

I can't see it very clearly. [ she breathes out, and again breathes in, trying to slow down her breathing even as her heart pounds. ] It's fine - we need to get out of here, there are a lot more than that one.

[passio]

I can—

[ his arms are tired. it takes him a moment, but he decides to just give up on that communication entirely. most of the time, he doesn’t feel too burdened by his inability to speak, but right now, he has to ration his energy.

he gestures to his sword, instead, and beckons her to follow. ]

[withwisdom]

[ lucky for dextera she's used to non-verbal cues, thanks to a certain silent knight of hers. she assumes it's just a matter of haste involved in the situation, and carefully tries to push her body to get back up. any worries about her injuries can wait. just as she stands she also reaches with her uninjured arm to the driftwood spear, letting it be her anchor to the ground. ]

Don't look back - I'll keep up.

[passio]

[ zelda is trustworthy, and he would probably believe her in any other situation, but like this, he just feels guilty for moving ahead too far.

he’s injured too, anyway, so it’s not long before his quick stride turns to limping, a look of strain and nausea crossing his face, draining color from his cheeks. they’re certainly a pair, aren’t they?

it’s why he doesn’t catch it when another siren draws itself from the water, ready to attack. ]

[withwisdom]

[ a terrible pair of exhausted and injured souls. but while dextera is more focused on what's ahead, zelda's frayed nerves lead her to keep turning her head every few seconds for any sign of a threat. and so the siren that does come out the water is evident to her. terror strikes her heart and it's still a distance from them, but she's more afraid of it trying to sing. ]

To the left - cover your ears!

[ and while she warns dextera, she takes a sharp breath, lets pain hit her, and throws the spear at the siren to draw its attention. ]

[passio]

[ dextera didn’t fall prey to the sirens in the first place, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen now. he wishes he had an earplug bone on him—but it’s always the things that seem useless that find their niche right when you don’t have them. ]

Ngh…!

[ with zelda’s spear providing some distraction, dextera lets his sword charge up and he swings. the siren, oddly enough, stops in place. like a snake that’s been charmed, its eyes follow the blade of the sword as dextera moves it.

he exhales, a moment bought, though now he has a siren reaching out to try to disarm him. ]

[withwisdom]

[ the spear of course just lands with a bounce and thud to the sandy ground, not remotely hitting the siren at all. she doesn't dwell on that - she turns her head, expecting to see dextera covering his ears, but instead he's with sword in hand. ]

Dextera -

[ but before she can ask what he's doing, she sees the siren moving toward him now. it doesn't seem intent on singing, but that doesn't mean she can let him be attacked. if only her damn seal worked she could stop it.

she'll have to just do the next best thing. there's no time to get the spear - she takes a quick breath and charges toward the siren, hoping its distracted enough by dextera to not see her as she tries to tackle it down. they say a person's strength increases when they're faced with instinctual life or death - time to test that theory. ]

[passio]

Gah?!

[ you did your best, zelda, but dextera can’t believe this is the path she’s chosen to take.

he stumbles back, this time in surprise rather than exhaustion. even when zelda’s body hits the siren, it seems much more concerned with rescuing his sword from this horrible human holding it hostage. it reaches out with a clawed, webbed hand, struggling to get away from zelda.

it shrieks, but at least it’s not a song. ]

Stay there!

[ hold it down, he means, but he’s trying to think fast and sign is like his sixth language, not his first. ]

[withwisdom]

[ sometimes you just need to act in the moment, even if it doesn't seem very smart. she doesn't see his signing, too focused on holding down the siren, but even so she has no intent of letting go. even if the siren squirms and thrashes about, she's 5'5, weighs about 130 pounds, and won't quit despite the struggle. all the while she grits her teeth and hopes dextera can kill it with that sword or whatever magic he used before. ]

[passio]

[ dextera has a plan this time, instead of just blindly throwing himself against them both as before.

luckily, this time, it doesn’t involve burning the siren to a crisp. instead, while the monster is distracted by both zelda and the sword, dextera takes the chance to place his hands on it one more time. as before, they glow, but it’s more like the siren is changing underneath his touch. ]

Ngh…!

[ the body of the creature seems to melt into light and reform as a round, glowing crystal, and zelda is freed from her burden of pinning the siren. ]

[withwisdom]

[ slowly but surely as the light grows stronger, she feels the siren moving less and less in her arms. then it suddenly begins to reform and disappear, her arms slowly loosening their hold until they encircle the air alone. she regards the crystal with a quiet awe and then carefully lifts it from the ground, afraid it might break if she isn't cautious enough. ]

What sort of power... [ but no, this is no time to ask any burning questions. she offers to crystal to dextera as she picks herself up from the ground. ] Lets hurry along now.

[passio]

[ dextera takes the crystal quickly, pocketing it—and he looks terribly winded after all that, but zelda is right. they should move. there will be time for questions later, and he’s sure she has quite a few of him.

trying to catch his breath, he starts walking. ]

Hurt?

[ she did just throw herself onto a siren after all, even if it quickly switched targets to dextera’s sword. ]

[withwisdom]

Not more than I am.

[ her body is sore all over, her bite stings, and she feels like she'll collapse if she doesn't keep moving. really though she's felt worse than this and that reminder pushes her to keep putting one foot in front of the other. ]

Don't worry about signing. You need to conserve your energy too.

[passio]

[ honestly, her reassurance doesn’t help much when she’s been doing the hard work and her spear was lost to the shore, but dextera nods anyway. there’s so little he can do like this. ]

…

[ luckily, their path to the rafts isn’t interrupted by any more sirens, and dextera is relieved to see that not all of them have departed from the island. he gestures to the boats the rocks they’re moored against, offering his hand to zelda to help her.

she can’t leave on her own, but maybe a group will show up before long that can go along with her. ]

[withwisdom]

[ the hand of help is appreciated, as her legs feel like they could come apart at any moment now, and gritting the pain is becoming harder. at least now they're back to safety. ]

Will you go back to help others?

[passio]

[ dextera nods. he needs a rest first, but if he abandoned the island now, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. he doesn’t want to leave until guren does. ]

Will you be OK?

[withwisdom]

I will be now. [ she gives him a smile, mustering up some confidence into it, and gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder. ] Do be careful. And if it becomes too much, there's no shame in retreat.